François-Xavier Gbré

François-Xavier Gbré was born in Lille, France, in 1978. He lives and works in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

He graduated with a degree in Photography from École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques de Montpellier in France. While engaging with time and geography, his work summons the language of architecture as a witness of memory and social changes. From remnants of colonial times to landscapes that are redefined by current events, François-Xavier Gbré explores territories and revisits history.

In 2017, François-Xavier Gbré participated in several international exhibition, namely AFRIQUES CAPITALES at Grande halle de la Villette in Paris and Recent Histories at the Walther Collection in Neu-Ulm in Germany. In 2016, three of his photographs from the series Tracks ‘’La Piscine’’, acquired by Centre Pompidou in Paris, were presented in the exhibition Cher(e)s Ami(e)s curated by Christine Macel. The same year, he presented an extract of his series Mali Militari at Pori Art Museum in Finland in the exhibition Crisis of Presence and his installation Wo shi Feizhou / Je suis africain in the international selection of the 12th Dakar Biennale.

In 2015, his work was presented in the exhibition The Lay of the Land at The Walther Collection Project Space in New York and in a solo show The Past is Foreign Country at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, USA.

In 2014, two solo exhibitions were dedicated to him: Fragments at Galerie Cécile Fakhoury – Abidjan and Abroad at Art Twenty One in Lagos, Nigeria. His work was also exhibited in Sphères#7 at GALLERIA CONTINUA – Les Moulins, France, New Africa in Casablanca and FLOW at Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery in Japan. In 2013, he participated in Rencontres Picha in Lubumbashi, RDC and We Face Forward at Whitworth Art gallery, Manchester. He also took part in Benin Biennale 2012 as well as the 8th and 9th Rencontres de Bamako – Biennale Africaine de la Photographie in Mali.

Notably, his work is part of the collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, Société Générale, France, Tate Modern in London, UK and the Walter Collection at Ulm in Germany.